Section 50.410  Minimum Requirements for Prequalification Process and Retraining Program

A school district-developed prequalification process or retraining program shall contain each of the elements listed in this Section.  A school district is not required to develop both a prequalification process and retraining program, nor is it required to address both teachers and principals.  Similarly, a locally developed prequalification process or retraining program may address professional practice only, student growth only, or both.  Any school district not offering a unified course of study (i.e., professional practice and student growth) either for teachers or principals shall ensure that those individuals successfully complete the State-developed prequalification process or retraining program in those areas not being covered by the locally developed process or program.

a)         Each individual who will present a prequalification process or retraining program shall complete the "train-the-trainer" program offered by, or on behalf of, the State Board of Education.

b)         Individual course modules shall address each of the following areas:

1)         Use of student growth data and indicators to evaluate teachers;

2)         Use of student growth data and indicators to evaluate principals;

3)         Methods and strategies for evaluating the professional practice of teachers; and

4)         Methods and strategies for evaluating the professional practice of principals.

c)         Each course module shall outline course goals, objectives, and participant outcomes and include training materials that align to the school district's evaluation plan.

d)         Each course module shall include "field practice" in a variety of virtual, simulated, or live contexts in order to allow evaluators to apply their understanding to actual situations.

e)         Standards

1)         Course modules for teachers shall be aligned to the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards (23 Ill. Adm. Code 24); and

2)         Course modules for principals shall be aligned to the Illinois Standards for Principal Evaluation contained in Appendix A.

f)         Course Content

Course modules shall address the following content:

1)         State statutory and regulatory requirements for evaluating staff (i.e., teachers, principals and assistant principals holding professional educator licenses), including the use of the required performance evaluation ratings of "excellent", "proficient", "needs improvement", and "unsatisfactory";

2)         Protocols and best practices for conducting classroom observations for teachers or observations of school practices for principals;

3)         Case studies that exemplify collaborative learning environments;

4)         Skills for engaging teachers or principals in high-quality opening conferences, feedback sessions, and end-of-year evaluation discussions;

5)         Methods for developing and supporting individualized professional development plans for tenured teachers rated as "needs improvement";

6)         Methods for developing and supporting individualized remediation plans for tenured teachers rated as "unsatisfactory";

7)         Methods for developing and supporting individual and school-level growth and development goals and plans for principals;

8)         Methods for analyzing multiple measures of student growth;

9)         Methods for constructing performance evaluation ratings from disparate, variously subjective indicators; and

10)         Strategies for evaluating teachers in specialized disciplines (e.g., special education; bilingual education; career and technical education; skill-based subject areas, such as art and music).

g)         Any individual who completes the school district-developed prequalification process but who fails the State-developed assessment shall be required to participate in the State-developed prequalification program before retaking the assessment.

h)         A school district shall include remediation for individuals who did not successfully complete one or more courses of the retraining program.  The remediation shall include content or approaches that are different than what was provided in the initial course module to assist the individual in mastering the material.

i)          Course modules may be presented in-person or through distance-learning or video-conferencing technology or through a configuration that best accommodates the content.

(Source:  Amended at 38 Ill. Reg. 19741, effective September 29, 2014)